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These are the best Walter White action figures. Period.
09.26.2013
12:08 pm
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Breaking Bad action figure
 
I can’t stop peering at these phenomenal Walter White/Heisenberg action figures. Too bad they’re not available for sale.
 
Breaking Bad action figure
 
Breaking Bad action figure
 
Breaking Bad action figure
 
Breaking Bad action figure
 
Well done, Trevor Grove!

You CAN buy these swell Heisenberg cufflinks, however….
 
Breaking Bad cufflinks
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Baking Bad: Cafe under fire for selling Walter White ‘crystal-meth’ cupcakes
‘Breaking Bad’ Valentine’s Day cards

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.26.2013
12:08 pm
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Samuel L. Jackson to Obama: ‘Be f**king Presidential’
09.26.2013
11:43 am
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Samuel L. Jackson has told President Obama to be “a leader” and to “stop trying to relate.”

In an interview with Playboy magazine, Jackson took issue with Obama dropping the “G"s at the end of words:

“We know it ain’t because of his blackness, so I say stop trying to ‘relate’. Be a leader. Be fucking presidential.”

The star of Pulp Fiction, Snakes on a Plane and The Avengers finished off his tirade by saying:

“Look, I grew up in a society where I could say ‘I ain’t’ or ‘what it be’ to my friends. But when I’m out presenting myself to the world as me, who graduated from college, who had family who cared about me, who has a well-read background, I fucking conjugate.”

The Playboy interview was obviously conducted before Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards Dinner the other night when Obama was dropping his “G’s” by the dozens.

Though critical of his presentation skills, Jackson, who campaigned for Obama in the 2008 election, still believed the President was a “safe dude.”

“[Obama’s] still a safe dude. But with those Republicans, we’re now in a situation where even if he said, ‘I want to give you motherfuckers a raise,’ they’d go, ‘Fuck you! We don’t want a raise!’

“I don’t know how we fix this bullshit. How do we fix the fact that politicians aren’t trying to serve the people, they’re just trying to serve their party and their closed ideals?

“If Hillary Clinton decides to run, she’s going to kick their fucking asses, and those motherfuckers would rather see the country go down in flames than let the times change.”

Mr. Jackson was also critical of political campaigns and petitions organized through Facebook and Twitter.

“You need to have your physical body out there in the streets and let these people - and the rest of the world - know. When our anti-war movement led the world, it was because people could see us in the streets, see our faces, hear the protest music.

“You can’t do that shit blogging in a room.”

Via the Independent

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.26.2013
11:43 am
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Thomas Pynchon punctures preposterous plagiarism accusation, 1966
09.26.2013
09:37 am
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Thomas Pynchon
 
In 1966 Thomas Pynchon published The Crying of Lot 49 to moderate acclaim. Groovy and jazzy, the novel, which centers on Oedipa Maas’ wiggy uncovering of the machinations, if such they be, of the malign Thurn und Taxis postal network, has proven over the years to be one of Pynchon’s most accessible and popular works. (It’s the one to start with, if you haven’t read any Pynchon.)

A year earlier, a Lithuanian-French writer named Romain Gary, known to me exclusively as the author of the source material upon which Sam Fuller’s late masterpiece White Dog was based, published a book called The Ski Bum. Gary noticed a discomfiting synchronicity: one of the characters in The Crying of Lot 49 had the same name as one of the characters in The Ski Bum.

This annoyed Gary, so he wrote to The New York Times to complain about it.
 

To the Editor:

With reference to Thomas Pynchon’s book “The Crying of Lot 49” I feel obliged to point out that the name “Genghis Cohn” has been borrowed by this author from my novel “The Ski Bum,” published one year ago. The name appears also in the title of my forthcoming novel “The Dance of Genghis Cohn.”

ROMAIN GARY

Paris.

 
On July 17, 1966, Pynchon’s reply appeared as follows:
 

To the Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor, Romain Gary asserts that I took the name “Genghis Cohn” from a novel of his to use in a novel of mine, “The Crying of Lot 49.” Mr. Gary is totally in error. I have never read, skimmed, or otherwise seen any of his novels. I took the name Genghis Cohen from the name of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), the well-known Mongol warrior and statesman. If Mr. Gary really believes himself to be the only writer at present able to arrive at a play on words this trivial, that is another problem entirely, perhaps more psychiatric than literary, and I certainly hope he works it out.

THOMAS PYNCHON

New York City.

 
Romain Gary and Thomas Pynchon
The 1966 exchange in The New York Times

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
V: A musical tribute to Thomas Pynchon by Richard and Mimi Fariña

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.26.2013
09:37 am
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‘Black Juju’: Mind-bending early Alice Cooper performance
09.25.2013
08:47 pm
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In Bobcat Goldthwait’s delightfully violent 2011 comedy, God Bless America, Roxy, the homicidal teenager played by Tara Lynne Barr, goes off on an epic Tarantino-esque rant about the titanic greatness of Alice Cooper that begins:

“You don’t ‘like’ Alice Cooper, Frank… that’s like a Muslim saying he ‘likes’ Mohamed”

By the time she was finished, I wanted to stand up in the cinema and cheer. YES!

I love Alice Cooper, but the band, not so much the frontman with the same name. I lose interest pretty quickly after Welcome to My Nightmare, but Alice Cooper the group, well, they’re one of my top, top, top favorite acts of all time. Alice Cooper will probably never be fashionable or cool again, but fuck it, they were great and this extended clip of them on Barry Richard’s Turn On, a local Washington, DC “free form” rock show, circa, 1971, is proof of how utterly mind-bogglingly brilliant they were in their prime.

They do “I’m Eighteen” and a killer take on “Black Juju.”

If there’s ONE Alice Cooper song I’d want to see an extended vintage performance of, it would be “Black Juju,” hands down. This clip does not disappoint. Trust me, you’ll love it to death.

This material and a lot more from Barry Richards’ personal archive can be purchased on DVD as Turn-On, Groove-In, Rock Out! The Barry Richards TV Collection Vol. 1 put out by Resurrection Productions.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.25.2013
08:47 pm
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Someone decided to have a little bit of Photoshop fun with that Urban Outfitters’ ‘punk’ jacket
09.25.2013
07:06 pm
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If Urban Outfitters was selling this extraordinary leather jacket, they’d sell bazillions! Guaranteed!

The Enya logo is an especially nice touch.

Image by Andy Kelly on Twitter. 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:

‘Vintage’ punk rock rebellion, yours for just $375 at Urban Outfitters

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.25.2013
07:06 pm
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Iggy Pop: ‘America today is a nation of midgets led by dwarves’
09.25.2013
06:31 pm
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Here’s an amusing letter written by Iggy Pop to journalist Joshua Berger following an interview they did together for Plazm magazine in 1995. Iggy was in Warsaw at that time on a tour of Europe.

I have no idea how the hell he fit all that text on Delta stationery. But he did, thankfully. There are so many choice quotes from this letter…

TIL Iggy Pop hates Led Zeppelin.

WARSAW

PHLASH: nation of midgets

the arts in America today are above all else. Successful artists live like gods. They are REMOTE and useless. the painting and sculpture generally on offer ranges from coy & cute to incomprehensible & huge. Everybody’s sick of it, but it’s exactly what it’s patrons deserve. These people are corrupt and frigid. America today is a nation of midgets led by dwarves. The midgets are small and normal. The dwarves are small and warped. The sickness comes from the top down.

The ‘music’ is mostly 60’s and 70’s rehash, esp. LED ZEPPELIN, who i never could stand in the first place. Also ‘folk-rock’ is back as ‘alternative’. gimme a break. the ‘bands’ dress this mess up in various ‘HIP’ clothes and ‘political’ postures to encode a ‘lock’ on social belonging which you can open by purchasing a combination of products, especially their own, none of them have fuck-all to say.

I hate the inane worship of gross ‘supermodels’ and i positively loathe Calvin Klein ads and that whole school of photography. it is not beautiful. Our gods are assholes.

There are continual ‘shock and rage’ movements in the performing/conceptual arts, but are they bringing anybody a good time? they bring filth death & loathing of self as fashion. I understand them, though. People are lost and frustrated, AND UNSKILLED.

Our country is stupid and degenerate. Nobody is here. People are starving. No one talks to you. No one comments. You are cut off. No one is straight. TV morons. A revolution is coming, and in reaction, a strongman will emerge. Everything sucks. Don’t bother me.

i hate it all. heavy metal. hollywood movies. SCHPOLOOGY! YeHEHCHH! - Iggy Pop

Tell us how you really feel, Jim! Shit, this was written in 1995. Imagine how pissed off Iggy must be in 2013!
 

 
Via Letters of Note

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.25.2013
06:31 pm
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Fantastic: The FUNNIEST ten minutes of Ted Cruz’s obnoxious Senate filibluster
09.25.2013
03:02 pm
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A common refrain that’s been appearing on comment boards regarding Ted Cruz’s faux filibuster is “If Republicans AND Democrats hate him so much, then he’s got to be doing SOMETHING right!”

I’m pretty sure that this simpleton’s homily has been repeated enough on Fox News and reichwing talk radio to have already become a truism in many a tiny mind, but it’s not true… I’m fairly certain that Democrats and Republicans could agree on child abusers—they’re not doing anything “right”—so this rhetorical foolishness is utterly meaningless.

No, both sides of the aisle hate Cruz because he’s a smarmy, greasy, supercilious dickhead. That’s all that unites the two parties when it comes to Ted Cruz: he’s a repellent, Brylcreemed weasel with the single most annoying voice I think I have ever heard, bar none. If Cruz thinks he’s going to become POTUS one day with a weak, reedy voice like his, he’s got another thing coming.

He’s 42 and he already comes off like a taller Peter Lorre!

The dude’s a total creep on every level.

In the video, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin hilariously attacks Ted Cruz on the Senate floor. This is totally worth watching, but the good part starts at 5:50. Durbin slams Cruz at the end. Slams him with one simple question.

The media seems to be concentrating on all the Green Eggs and Ham stuff. (Cruz doesn’t even understand Green Eggs and Ham.) THIS is the best part of the entire thing:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.25.2013
03:02 pm
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‘Percussive Maintenance’: Genius supercut of humans abusing malfunctioning technology
09.25.2013
03:01 pm
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Office Space
 
The act of tussling with a broken TV set can potentially contain the primary elements of drama—but in microcosm. Person has goal (to watch TV)—person is hindered in goal (fucking thing won’t work)—person takes action (thwack the thing on its side)—person achieves goal (can now watch TV)!

It’s no wonder that TV and movie directors go to that well so often. It’s used a lot because it works.

Duncan Robson put together a truly brilliant supercut of frustrated people getting mad at technology, selecting from a wide variety of movies and TV shows. Fonzie gets his own section, as is only appropriate. The video itself mimics the process—first we get a section on malfunctioning devices, then a section of people walloping their devices, ending with—glory be!—a section of people reacting with joy once the damn car/carnival attraction/spaceship finally kicks into gear—and we recognize many of the rejoicing characters from earlier in the supercut.

The slowly crescendoing music, by Joel Robson, could hardly be better, and the selections are consistently fantastic—Back to the Future, Brain Candy, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, WarGames, and Freaks and Geeks are just a few of the ones I caught—as I’m sure you will too.

Enjoy.
 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.25.2013
03:01 pm
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NY State Highways now have ‘Texting Zones’
09.25.2013
02:36 pm
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This is brilliant! Hopefully California—and everywhere else—will soon follow.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today continued the state’s efforts to reduce distracted driving by unveiling special “Texting Zones” along the New York State Thruway and State Highways that will give motorists a pull-off area to park and use their mobile devices. Existing Park-n-Ride facilities, rest stops, and parking areas along the Thruway and Highways will dual-function as Texting Zones, and signage will be placed along the highway to inform drivers where the Zones are located. A total of 298 signs will be located along major highways across the state, notifying motorists to 91 Texting Zone locations.

There are also going to be tougher penalties in the state of New York if you’re caught on your cell phone or texting. I’m assuming ticket fines will be sky-high. THEY SHOULD BE.

You can read about the new texting zones (where they’ll be located) and regulations at NY.gov.

Below, I posted this video a while ago on DM, but it never gets old. A man gets sweet, sweet revenge on a texting fool.

 
Via The World’s Best Ever

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.25.2013
02:36 pm
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Buy the scarf George Orwell was wearing when he was shot in the Spanish Civil War
09.25.2013
01:16 pm
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George Orwell and his neckerchief
 
The Spanish Civil War was the primary turning point of George Orwell’s life. During the conflict, Orwell made a clear emotional commitment to socialism, and his writing afterward took on a focus and a purpose that it had previously lacked. As he wrote in his classic essay “Why I Write” in 1946, “The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” Orwell’s greatest period as a writer (in my opinion) came after 1936 (although I do have a soft spot for Down and Out in Paris and London and some of the early essays).

Orwell was shot by a sniper in the neck while he was in Spain—unlike Hemingway, who was really there as a famous writer, Orwell, as an ordinary conscript, was in the trenches like any other soldier, alongside people who were almost certainly very unlike him. Curiously, given Orwell’s later status as a massive literary icon, his wounds in Spain play surprisingly little role in the creation of the myth (although it certainly didn’t hurt).

Here is Orwell’s description of being shot, from Homage to Catalonia:

I have been about ten days at the front when it happened. The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail.

-snip-

Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the centre of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all around me, and I felt a tremendous shock—no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shrivelled up to nothing. The sandbags in front of me receded into immense distance. I fancy you would feel much the same if you were struck by lightning. I knew immediately that I was hit, but because of the seeming bang and flash I thought it was a rifle nearby that had gone off accidentally and shot me. All this happened in a space of time much less than a second. The next moment my knees crumpled up and I was falling, my head hitting the ground with a violent bang which, to my relief, did not hurt. I had a numb, dazed feeling, a consciousness of being very badly hurt, but no pain in the ordinary sense.

 
On Monday it was reported that the “neckscarf and two neckerchiefs” Orwell was wearing when he was shot are being put up for auction at Bloomsbury Auctions. The auction takes place on October 3, and the final price is expected to be £1200 (a little less than $2,000). I would be very surprised if it doesn’t go for a great deal more.

The neckwear looks rather handsome, don’t you think? I wouldn’t mind draping that around my neck.
Orwell's neckerchiefs
 
Here’s Bloomsbury’s description of the item:

A collection of 4 scarves and neckerchiefs belonging to George Orwell, accompanied by strong provenance, all with anti-facist images and colours, 2 c.400 x 400mm., 1 c.210 x 210mm. and 1 c.1120 x 190mm., this last with small hole and blood being the one worn by him near Huesca on 20/5/1937 when he was shot in the neck by a sniper, accompanying letter of provenance from Kathleen [Wigham] to Don [Bateman], the father of the vendor, describing how the items had been given to her husband Wilfred Wigham by Hugh Patrick O’Hare who had treated Orwell in the aftermath of the shooting, and had removed them prior to Orwell going to hospital

 
Here’s some rather silly footage from the BBC with actor Chris Langham pretending to be Orwell in grainy footage of Spain. It is a bit informative, though.

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
George Orwell’s recipe for Christmas pudding
‘George Orwell A LIfe in Pictures’: Essential documentary on the author of ‘1984’

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.25.2013
01:16 pm
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